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1983 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
SIUSALUKIS.COM
17
2013 SALUKI FOOTBALL
The 2013 season is Randy Hedberg’s sixth season as the quarterbacks
coach at Southern Illinois where he will again work with senior quarterback
Kory Faulkner.
In 2012 Faulkner threw for 1,865 yards, the 12th highest single-season
total in school history, and his 191 completions were the fourth highest in
school history.
Under Hedberg’s tutelage, Chris Dieker was a two-time All-Conference
performer who moved into the top five in 13 different offensive categories in
the school record books. Dieker rounded out his Saluki career in 2010 with a
20-9 record in three years starting under center. He became one of just three
quarterbacks in Saluki history to throw for over 5,000 yards in a career and
signed a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers on July 27, 2011.
Dieker finished his Saluki career ranked third in career passing yards
(5,237), career completions (446), career attempts (757), career comple-
tion percentage (.589), touchdown passes in a career (41) and total offense
(5,735). Dieker was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Offen-
sive Player of the Week after throwing for a career-high 279 yards and four
touchdowns to go along with a pair of rushing touchdowns in a 49-21 win
over Indiana State, Nov. 20, 2010.
Prior to SIU, Hedberg spent nine seasons as head coach at St. Cloud State,
where he posted a 47-51 record. In 18 years as a collegiate head coach, he
compiled an overall mark of 92-74-2.
Hedberg began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant (1979-81)
and head coach (1982-90) at Minot State. He also worked as an assistant
head coach and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Central Missouri
State (1990-96). From 1996-99, Hedberg was the offensive coordinator and
quarterbacks/receivers coach at North Dakota.
A four-year letterwinner in football, basketball and baseball at Minot
State, Hedberg was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1977 and started
five games as a rookie. He was with Tampa Bay through 1978, Oakland in
1979 and Green Bay in 1980. He was named by Sports Illustrated as one of
the top 50 North Dakota sports figures of the 20th century. Hedberg holds a
bachelor’s degree from Minot State and a master’s from North Dakota. He and
his wife, Chery Hysjulien, have four adult children - Jennifer, Katie, Christo-
pher and Maddie.
RANDY HEDBERG
Quarterbacks
Minot State, 1977
35th Year Overall/6th at SIU
line coach at Northern State, where he worked under former Saluki assistant
coach Tom Dosch.
Flyger was a stand-out player at Augustana from 2000-2003. There, he
earned All-North Central Conference honors and was named the league’s
most valuable defensive lineman as a senior in 2003. Flyger went on to play
three seasons with the Sioux Falls Storm of the United Indoor Football League
before embarking on a coaching career. His first coaching opportunity came
in 2007, when he served on Dale Lennons’s staff at the University of North
Dakota, working primarily with the defensive line.
Flyger has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Augustana
and is working towards his master’s degree in sports management from SIU.
Jim Jackson enters his fourth season as an assistant coach for the Saluki
football team and coaches the tight ends. This will also be his second season
as the recruiting coordinator.
Jackson is responsible for helping develop All-American tight end MyCole
Pruitt. As a sophomore in 2012, Pruitt led the team in catches (49), receiving
yards (577) and TD catches (4). The tight end is an important element in
coordinator Kalen DeBoer’s offense. Pruitt has been the team’s leader in
receptions and receiving yards in each of the past two seasons. Pruitt was a
third-team All-American selection by The Sports Network and named to the
All-MVFC First Team in 2012. In 2011, he was an honorable mention All-
Conference selection and earned a spot on the MVFC All-Newcomer team
In 2010, his first year at Southern Illinois, Jackson’s tight ends were
instrumental in helping the Saluki offense average 30.1 points per game
and 378.2 yards of total offense. The tight ends, playing a major role in run
blocking, helped pave the way for the Saluki rushing attack that averaged
189.5 yards per game and scored 22 touchdowns on the year. Kyle Harruff
tied for the team lead with three touchdown receptions, 17 catches for 294
yards - an average of 17.3 yards per reception under Jackson’s guidance.
Fellow tight ends C.J. Robertson, Philip Schumacher and tight end/fullback
John Goode also hauled in touchdown catches in 2010. Goode was a second
team All-MVFC selection in 2010 under Jackson.
Jackson came to Southern Illinois from the University of Minnesota, where
he was an assistant offensive line coach from 2007-09. In 2007, Jackson
helped coach the Gopher offensive front that ranked 10th in the nation in
sacks allowed (13 total). He worked directly with the Gopher centers along
with his various other coaching duties. Prior to joining the Minnesota staff,
Jackson spent one season as a defensive graduate assistant working with the
defensive line at Louisiana-Lafayette. Before that, Jackson spent the 2005
season as a graduate assistant working as video coordinator and with the
offensive line at Toledo, and in 2004 he served as assistant defensive backs
coach and assistant video coordinator at Lehigh. He started his coaching
career in 2003 as the outside linebackers coach at Methodist (N.C.) College.
Jackson played both football and baseball at Cornell University in Ithaca,
N.Y. He was a three-year starter on the baseball team and a team captain and
played two seasons on the football team. A Mesquite, Texas native, Jackson
received his bachelor’s degree in communications from Cornell in 2003. He
earned his master’s degree from Minnesota in sports management in 2009.
He and his wife Michelle married in July 2011 and have one daughter, Mae.
JIM JACKSON
Tight Ends/Recruiting
Coordinator
Cornell, 2003
11th Year Overall/4th at SIU
PHIL MEYER
Running Backs
Illinois State, 1979
33rd Year Overall/10th at SIU
Phil Meyer is in his second stint as an assistant coach at SIU, and 2013
is his 10th season overall with the Salukis. The Milwaukee, Wis. native has
32 years of coaching experience, including a five-year stint as SIU’s offensive
coordinator from 1989-93. He enters his fifth season since his 2009 return to
SIU. He will coach the running backs after spending the past four years as the
Saluki offensive line coach.
Since returning to the Salukis, Meyer’s offensive line was a driving force
behind a unit that averaged 30 points per game in both 2009 and 2010. SIU
ranked seventh nationally with 34 points per game in 2009, and his unit led
the Saluki rushing attack that averaged 221.1 yards per game, fifth most in the
FCS. In his first season as the offensive line coach, Southern Illinois allowed
just 14 sacks in 13 games, which were the second fewest in the conference.
In 2012 Saluki senior right guard RichardWilson was named an All-MVFC
honorable mention. In addition, Meyer has mentored two All-Conference
lineman. Center Bryan Boemer and left tackle David Pickard received All-